not agree to that, is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff? >> absolutely. again, there's no prospect to an agreement that doesn't involve the rates going up on the top 2%. >> "the new york times" reports that senior republican leadership aides are contemplating a fall-back position on a fiscal deal. they could foresee taking up and passing legislation this month to extend the tax cuts for the middle class and then resume the bitter fight over spennd a taxes as the nation approaches the next hard deadline. it's statutory borrowing limit which could be reached in late january or february. speaking to a business roundtable, president obama responded to that idea this way. >> if congress in any way suggests that they're going to tie negotiations to debt ceiling votes and take us to the brink of default once again, as part of a budget negotiation, which by the way we have never done in our history until we did this it last year, i will not play that game. >> john boehner and house republican leadership met with small business owners today to talk